SEIU Executive Office: Microfilm

The Service Employees International Union was established in 1921 and known as the Chicago-based Building Service Employees International Union until 1968. An affiliate of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), it largely organized what were then called flat janitors. Eventually, it grew to include non-professional employees working in private and public institutions employed as clerical workers, technicians, janitors and maintenance workers, health-care workers, guards, doormen, and attendants of stadiums, entertainment and recreation facilities, just to name a few. These 134 rolls of microfilm are the only extant records which document SEIU's first 34 years. The location of the paper records which were filmed to create this collection is unknown; the papers are presumed to have been destroyed.